Cannes at Home: Days 10 & 11 – The End Is Upon Us

by Cláudio Alves

The last days of the 75th Cannes Film Festival saw the premiere of many buzzy titles, including some that were declared Palme d'Or frontrunners on the spot. Albert Serra celebrates his first stint in the Main Competition with Pacification, a film that might not be for everyone but will undoubtedly satisfy the director's fans. Hirokazu Kore-eda returns after Shoplifters with another found-family crowd-pleaser, Broker. Lukas Dhont's Close reduced many to tears, but I'm not convinced. His debut was similarly acclaimed in Cannes, only to receive much-deserved backlash when seen by wider audiences. Kelly Reichardt seems to have delivered a low-key marvel with the Portland-set Showing Up, starring frequent collaborator Michelle Williams. Finally, Léonor Serraille closed the competition screenings with her sophomore feature, Mother and Son.

Just hours before Vincent Lindon's jury announces its choices, the Cannes at Home miniseries comes to an end with Serra's The Death of Louis XIV, Kore-eda's After Life, Dhont's Girl, Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy, and Serraille's Jeune Femme…

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75th Cannes. Director's Fortnight Lineup

by Nathaniel R

The 54th edition of Directors Fortnight, a sidebar which plays alongside Cannes 75th Official Selection films, has announced its lineup for this May's screenings and festivities. The opening night ceremony will honor director Kelly Reichardt with the Carrosse d'Or for her oeuvre, which they describe like so

"Political humanistic and grounded in American land, her seven feature films tell an intimate counter - history of her country, attached to territories and underdogs." 

The lineup this year includes the following 23 features (if there's an asterisk it's a first film and thus also eligible for the Camera d'Or)...

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FYC: Kelly Reichardt for Best Director

by Cláudio Alves

Today marks the end of Oscar voting. After the clock strikes 5 PM PST/8 PM EST all the ballots for the 93rd Academy Award nominations will be set in stone, and nothing will change until the results are announced next Monday. As it stands, this also marks the end of these FYC write-ups by the Team Experience. To conclude things, I took for myself the honor of writing the last such piece of the season. It's about my favorite of the Oscar eligible titles, a tale of kindness in an unkind world, of ancient friendships, untraditional masculinities, unhuman economies, and unforgiving histories. First Cow's Kelly Reichardt's magnum opus and the film for which the American cineaste should be conquering her first Oscar nomination…

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How many female directors are going to be nominated?

by Juan Carlos Ojano

In hindsight, concerns that "there are no movies" or cries to "cancel the Oscars" during the pandemic were premature and also insulting. We could lament all the films postponed or we could embrace the extraordinary films we got. 2020 was a rich year of diverse voices behind the movies. That happily translated to the awards conversation: BIPOC and female filmmakers have had an unprecedented presence in the run up to the Oscar nominations.

Looking back at Oscar history, only five women have been nominated for Best Director...

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Spirit Award Nods: "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" and "Minari" lead the nominations

Chauncy and Barry helping announce the Spirit nominationsby Nathaniel R

Nominations for the 36th annual Independent Spirit Awards have been announced. Spirit winners Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) as well as actress Laverne Cox announced the nominations. 

BEST FEATURE

• First Cow (Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani)
  Received 3 nominations
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Todd Black, Denzel Washington, Dany Wolf)
  Received 5 nominations
• Minari (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh)
  Received 6 nominations
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Sara Murphy, Adele Romanski)
  Received 7 nominations
• Nomadland (Mollye Asher, Dan Janveey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloe Zhao)
  Received 5 nominations

A Full list of Film Independent Spirit nominees and commentary follow after the jump...

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